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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Bridge Repairs Done For This Week, Will Resume Next Week

OCEAN CITY — The tedious process repairing sections of a failing concrete surface on the underbelly of the Route 50 Bridge began this week, forcing single-lane closures that will resume next week.

State Highway Administration (SHA) crews on Tuesday began systematically chipping away at the underside of the Harry Kelley Memorial Bridge, removing chunks, or in many cases, small pieces of failing concrete that run the risk of falling onto vessels below or into the bay. While boaters are supposed to use the navigable channel under the bridge’s draw span, some smaller vessels go under the bridge at various other points.

On Tuesday, SHA crews began working on the project on the eastbound side of the bridge with a large “snooper,” or cherry-picker of sorts, extended over the side of the bridge to provide workers with access to the underneath portion of the span. The work resulted in single-lane closure for much of Tuesday and Wednesday. SHA’s original plan was to complete the entire project in two days this week, but the work proved tedious and crews will return next week to complete the westbound side of the bridge.

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3 comments:

Steve said...

Take your time, guys! I'd rather have a safe bridge to go under than a shoddy/ incomplete repair job. Nobody is using that lane anyway until April/ May.

Do your jobs well, and make it a long lasting repair!

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Please repair the bay spans as well. Steel shouldn't be the same density as a sponge!

Anonymous said...

Would it be too much to ask to have signs posted that warn of falling concrete in crossing areas outside the channel?